Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

In my first (1030am) class today, I discussed the constellations that were covered in my 230pm class two Fridays ago. I was able to discuss one constellation more (Leo, for about ten more minutes) than I did the last time I lectured this, because this time I took up the entire period. So technically, my earliest class is now the most ahead in the lectures.

That means in the 230pm class, I gave the Messier object library research. These are two sessions that I'll have to compress to one for the 1250-230pm Monday Friday class, with the fact in mind that on November 26 (Wednesday) there will be no classes again.

There were still some groups that submitted their third tide graph. After today there will be deductions to graphs that I will receive.

Surprisingly, my thesis advisee also showed up for consultation. He had already added some comets to his sky display, which showed up as small light blue "<" symbols. I asked him to make them into comet shaped icons with even small tails.

When the comet is clicked on, the name of the comet is displayed, as well as the distance in astronomical units. No word though on whether the comet is visible at the distance given. I hope at the very least he mentions that in his help file, although I'm sure the panel will ask that only visible comets be displayed.

The best improvement that I've seen him come up with so far is having the times of the celestial events (solar eclipses, occultations and transitions etc.) displayed in local time when in the horizontal coordinates mode, and shown in universal time when in the equatorial coordinates mode. This is major initiative on his part and I hope the panel appreciates that.

He also asked that the button for choosing to show retrograde motion of planets by month or by year be done away with. I agreed, and asked him to change it to a pulldown list of one to a certain number of years, so that a complete loop (or loops) can be shown for Jupiter and Saturn, instead of the partial loop that is traced after one year.

He said Mercury has a maximum of three loops in one year, so I told him to get the number of years that will display that number of loops for Saturn and Jupiter and make that the limit for those planets.

So the maximum will be variable depending on the planet selected, so that the loop displayed for Mercury and Venus will not span the celestial globe more than once.